Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian get kidnapped to be used as sacrifices to offer to the Ghost King for when he arrived, the cultists went on and on about how they'll become the king's servants and that he will cleanse the mortal world.
Which, obviously neither of the four of them wants, especially when the Big Bat was off world on official league business too. So they try to sneakily remove their bindings and all of that, with Dick making conversation and the others piping in to distract them and stuff.
Unfortunately, the summoning still went as planned, but the result was not what any of them expected.
Instead of the ancient, ghostly eldritch king they expected, what they instead got was a giant ball of flaming feathers looking down at them sleepily, with a silence passing as if it were slowly processing what was happening before asking.
"Do you have any clue as to how hard it is to put a child godking to sleep."
---
Vlad and Danny have outlived everyone they knew in Amity Park by about 200 years. During those years, Vlad and Danny have gotten, better, with each other.
Now, you see, the Duke of the Black Flame did not care what exactly the boy did outside whenever he was summoned, but it then became his problem when he was told to go and collect the boy due to some complications.
He went along with it, but was irritated about it, he never had to do this before. So of course, as if to spite him, he found that Danny went and turned himself into a damn toddler.
So of course, his first reaction was to carry him to Clockwork and make him turn him back. He had some very choice words when Clockwork said no and didn't even tell him why that he didn't say.
And then the child was thrusted into his care.
He protested, of course, he was only 242, and this was a child he didn't even like on the best of days. To which Clockwork brought up how, didn't even always want to claim Danny as his son back in the day?
That was a younger phase in his life, the him now doesn't want anything to do with the brat.
But alas, he was still forced to take care of the child, claiming that only another halfa would be capable of properly taking care of another, which Vlad tried to refute, he truly, truly did.
But against the Observants and the Master of Time, he had to fold.
Fuck, he misses the time when he didn't have a title and thus, had to be involved within politics.
At least human politics were predictable.
The time following his caretaking of one Ghost King were utterly, terrible. First, Danny whined like, well, a toddler, when he brought him over to his domain because of the heat which, rude. Then he had to move into the castle to properly take care of him which he had to suck up.
It was either this, or the Far Frozen.
The palace was cold, which made him made feel a bit discomforted in prolong periods of time, due to always spending most of his time around heat, but nothing he couldn't handle.
Then he found out that dealing with a superpowered toddler was unpleasant, to say the least. The boy kept disappearing under his watch, flew through the palace halls at high speeds and seemingly boundless amounts of energy with even worse self-preservation instincts, and when he wailed?
He wailed.
Vlad already had his damn talons full with dealing with the brat.
And then came having to take on the king's workload due to said eastern dragon being a toddler. He had to physically deny himself from screaming when he heard of it, to keep Danny from joining in with a wail out of fun if anything else.
Three years passed, a blink of an eye to him now really, and Vlad was not having that great a time. He was stressed, tired, and not amused by both the lack of sleep and trying to keep Danny out of harm's way.
Did he mention that during those two years, Vlad had to be forced along whenever Danny was summoned? No? Well now you know.
The one time, the one time that the stars aligned to have Vlad neither have to deal with his shared workload and Danny finally asleep at the same time.
Of course, as soon as he closed his eyes and rested surrounded by his warmth. Of course, of Observants-damned course did the brat have to be summoned at that exact moment when he was finally getting some precious sleep.
He stared down at the cultists sleepily, his usual dignity and elegance lost to its basic functions as his mind slowly tried to process what was happening. When it did, he felt himself be irritated, before a wave of resignation flooded him and he asked one, simple question to hopefully drive the meaning into their thick, stupid skulls.
"Do you have any clue as to how hard it is to put a child godking to sleep."
Rhetorical question, really. He didn't expect an answer.
1K notes
·
View notes